Trey Anastasio Discusses Lengthy Process Of Planning Phish Sphere Vegas Concerts

When Phish takes the stage at the Sphere in Las Vegas over the next four nights it will be the culmination of nearly a year of work. Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio spoke about the band’s residency at the $2.3 billion venue and their planning process in a new interview with the Associated Press.

Phish tapped Abigail Rosen Holmes and The Moment Factory’s Jean-Baptiste Hardoin to serve as co-creative directors for the Sphere run. Both Holmes and The Moment Factory have worked with Phish previously on New Year’s Eve and Halloween “gags.” Anastasio told the Associated Press’ Josh Cornfeld he started plotting the Phish Sphere strategy with Holmes last June.

It’s not often a band 40 years into their career gets to embark on a completely new challenge but Trey’s excitement for Phish’s first shows at the state-of-the-art arena was well apparent. “It’s extremely unique to any venue that we’ve played before,” the guitarist said of the Sphere. “One of the things that we’ve tried to do is sculpt our show so that we can be the band that we always are and play to our strengths while simultaneously using the technology to kind of expand the elements of the show — like the adventure and the breaking free of boundaries.”

Trey Anastasio detailed the ever-changing process of developing the Sphere shows that included changes as recently as Monday, the day before the interview was conducted. “It’s a constant process of waking up in the morning and looking for areas that we can improve,” Anastasio explained. “[T]here were ideas on what the thematic narrative that was going to run through the four nights that went on for a month. Then we landed on one. Then it was what songs we’re going to play, what the (visual) content was going to be, how literal we wanted to make it. The answer to that is not very literal. Our fans are really smart and really involved, and we wanted to take a night or so for people to figure out what we were doing, plant a lot of Easter eggs and things like that. But it’s a never-ending daily improvement.”

Speaking of Phish fans, pleasing the group’s fervent followers is extremely important to Trey and his bandmates. “The fans and the community are everything,” Anastasio stated. “We have intelligent, focused fans and we have to honor that. You know, they’re not casual fans and that’s really cool. It’s an honor and it’s a massive responsibility. I feel like the longer this goes, the more we owe. The fans have supported us for 40 years — it’s our responsibility to keep raising the bar. Which is a great challenge. And it’s very unique. If you really look at the series of events that we continue to put on, that’s the thinking that goes behind it.”

Anatasio reiterated what he told the Washington Post last week that the shows will be connected by a theme that will play out over the course of the run. “We created four unique Sphere shows top to bottom,” the guitarist said. “The whole thing, every second of this, is going to be to the best of our ability — will be new and exciting, new and exciting, surprising, new and exciting … like that.”

While tickets for the run sold out immediately after going on sale, livestreams are available for purchase of all four shows via LivePhish.com. Phish kicks off the festivities tonigh at 7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET and returns at the same start time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Trey Anastasio also talked about the planning that is going into the band’s Mondegreen festival in Dover, Delaware this summer. “I love getting up in the morning and creatively thinking of another cool thing to blow people’s minds,” Anastasio exclaimed of his continuing passion. Additional topics hit were keeping it fresh after all these years and Phish’s Gamehendge performance at Madison Square Garden on December 31, 2023.

Watch Anastasio’s chat with the Associated Press below: